Depending on each family's taste, jellied meat dishes are processed differently. However, to make a delicious dish, the first factor is to choose fresh ingredients.
To make the jellied meat have natural adhesion without using agar powder or gelatin, you should choose to buy the pork leg first. This part has many tendons and skin, which helps the broth freeze perfectly and have moderate chewiness when cooled.
The meat bought needs to be salted, scraped clean of the skin. The secret to making the meat broth clear is to blanch the meat in boiling water with minced ginger and shallots. After blanching, take it out and wash it again with cold water before slicing it into square pieces. This step helps completely remove dirt and the smell of the meat.
Spices for frozen meat are quite simple but indispensable with delicious fish sauce and crushed crushed pepper. You should marinate the meat for at least 30 minutes. Fish sauce helps the meat to be more fragrant, while pepper creates a characteristic warm flavor in the chilly weather of the early days of the year.
Before simmering, sauté dried shallots until fragrant and stir-fry until the meat is firm with wood ear mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. When pouring water into simmering, keep the heat very low. The most important note is to remove foam continuously. These layers of foam, if not treated, will make the water cloudy and lose the aesthetic beauty of the dish.
To make the frozen meat bowl look like an artwork, trim carrots into flower shapes or place a few cilantro leaves on the bottom of the bowl before scooping the meat in. When the meat is frozen and turned back onto the plate, these patterns will clearly appear under the transparent plastic layer, highlighting the traditional Tet feast.
The best jellied meat is when eaten with hot rice and pickled onions. The fatty, cool taste of the meat combined with the mild sourness and spiciness of pickled onions will create a wonderful taste balance, helping you eat deliciously without feeling greasy.
Along with frozen pork leg, the Tet Nguyen Dan feast also includes banh chung, pickled onions, glass noodle soup, steamed vegetables and fruits... all are attractive dishes, loved by many people.
